Dont want to stockpile 1,000 pounds of dried rice and beans? Want something that taste a little better then MREs? Want something that you dont have to worry about rotating out?

One of the main problems with stockpiling survival food preps, is that people sometimes stockpile what they do not normally eat. So the food stocks sit in a closet, expire, and have to be thrown out. In the long run its easier to stockpile what your family normally eats so rotation is handled in a natural manner.

back to the thread, I just picked up five more 6 cans of Augason farms yesterday at my local Walmart, they had nearly a full aisle two months ago, now the stock is almost gone and they have not been re-stocking.

And over in the sporting goods area they have the same sized gallon cans of Mountain House meals, more than twice the price of the Augason Farms, and with only ten servings per can I passed up on the Mountain House.

I love Ramen noodles and I can supplement them with the Augason soy beef or chicken substitute if I chose, I usually use tuna.

I may very well be the largest buyer of the Augason farms emergency meals locally, I’m not bragging for ego and since I’m not posting where I live I can say I know have 65 number six cans. I have no idea how long that will last for one person, I think one month.

104
posted on 08/18/2012 4:49:14 AM PDT
by Eye of Unk
(Vote for Sarah Palin, she is the cure to the disease and infection of socialism.)

Thank you. I might live. Probably not, but maybe. You never know. Could be, but the odds are against it. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Who can know for sure. But I will. Unless I don't. But then if I die, I won't be alive, so I won't die. Unless I do. It's a tossup. Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. But I'll try. If I don't, I won't. You can't tell for sure. I might make it, or not. There's a chance. This can happen, unless I haven't a prayer. But if I do, then I will. But there's not the slightest hope. Yet I am sure I will make it. There's zero chance of that. But who can say? I can. I will make it. But maybe not.

I sometimes think I may have gotten a bit too compulsive buying as much stock of the freeze dried emergency foods, where I live even in the winter it would be hard to go hungry what with moose all over the place in rural Alaska.

But on a side note if it did go all to hell and people are going hungry then at the least I have something most people will barter immediately for, except maybe ammunition.

What concerns me is that locally at my Walmart they sold these quite well, but no re-stocking, either the profit margin was small or the supply is restricted. But then again they have had Mountain House cans and pouches for many years, but they are over priced and don’t sell very much.

109
posted on 08/18/2012 5:05:28 AM PDT
by Eye of Unk
(Vote for Sarah Palin, she is the cure to the disease and infection of socialism.)

We had a can of pineapple bits blow a year or so ago. Really foul.
Notice the ‘galvanize’ looking finish on the inside of pineapple cans.?
Must be some reaction of pineapple and the usual ‘tin can’ construction.

“Is a lot of that Walton Feed food, wheat berries and beans, and such?”

The Walton Feed food is from almost every food group. I planned meals for a month, then ordered enough to last for my chosen amount of months. Foods that last forever on their own, I bought at grocery, like salt, sugar, honey, etc.. If TSHTF, I have stored grocery food to start using first and when that is gone, go to the Walton food.

For me, I found that planning meals helped me get the right amount of varied foods. Yes, there are a lot of Walton beans and I have various seasonings to use with those so they don't taste the same every time. I have a way to cook dried beans that doesn't take boiling them for hours and that saves fuel. I have rice to add to those beans to make a complete protein.

I have studied since 1998 to be able to be self sufficient so I don't have to depend on someone else to keep me alive. I have written numerous articles to help people begin to prepare. Those articles are on Survival Podcast website.

Why does the box cost twice as much as the pail. Sure, there’s some dried onions and bacon bits and such in the box but I can’t see the price being to much higher. I’m probably missing something by reading it online at the Walmart site since there’s none in the stores within a 100 miles of me. I don’t much care about variety in a shtf situation and with a tight budget I’d rather go with the cheaper one but I’d like some input from someone who experience with the products.

I’m also not understanding the $174 box which states 540 servings. That’s way over 3 meals x 30 days = 90 meals. Or are they saying a sprinkle of dried onions or bacon bits as a flavor enhancement is a serving?

I wanted to make the point that everyone needs to be prepared to cook those dried items with minimal fuel use.

Every prepper needs a pressure cooker, and a pressure canner, and all the canning materials, as almost a starting point of their (long term) preparedness.

Dried beans and wheat are the foundation of a true melt down scenario that would throw us into a starvation situation, but facing two hours of cooking time, for each meal, is of course impractical for most of us, actually all of us, because even those living in timber, don’t need the unnecessary physical effort of hand cutting firewood that they are wasting with excessive cooking.

It is imperative that people get those pressure cookers, and learn how to can dried beans while allowing the canning process to do the cooking for instance, which means that one complicated fuel gathering and cooking session can produce many quarts of canned beans for the shelf.

They need to learn that you can bring your beans, or wheat berries to a boil in a pressure cooker, turn off the fuel, and that the beans/wheat will cook on their own.

My tomato sauce is all dated, best by 8/2010, but my tomato sauce never goes bad, my old tomato paste though, gets where it kind of explodes when I puncture the can to open it, after throwing a few of those away, I started using them anyway, and it didn’t hurt me, but I am curious what the explosive spitting is about.

“It was the cooking of the dried beans that I was getting to. I wanted to make the point that everyone needs to be prepared to cook those dried items with minimal fuel use.”

I have been concerned about that, too, that people buy gobs of dried beans and would run out of fuel or water to prepare them. Dried food takes water and fuel, it doesn't prepare itself. For a short time emergency, like 5 or so days without power due to a hurricane or other weather event, I have canned beans and instant rice along with other open the can and heat items like canned creamed soups with meat in it (those are Progresso soups and are delicious). Also have canned fruit for those times.

So, I have a short term emergency way to heat and eat using very little fuel. I have numerous ways to cook for a long term emergency and have way to have good water for as long as necessary. I'm sort of a Plan A/B/C/D person to accomplish a task so I can live as well as possible under dire circumstances.

I also have their discontinued, non battery stove which is a backpackers version of the one you built, there are a number of models of those passive, twig burning stoves, that help make the flame more similar to a burner.

Regular kitchen type cooking with fire (not grilling, but boiling and simmering) would be quite an eye opener for most people, it wouldn’t hurt for preppers to try it a couple of times if they are not experienced in it.

Even some customers don’t realize it. When I was a cashier there were a couple of times I refused to ring something up because it was swollen, I’d send my bagger to find a good one. I remember the looks on my customers’ faces when they realized they’d picked something up without really looking at it and were about to poison themselves.

126
posted on 08/18/2012 11:14:50 AM PDT
by Ellendra
("It's astounding how often people mistake their own stupidity for a lack of fairness." --Thunt)

Canned fruit is more acidic than canned veggies or beans so they have a shorter shelf life. The acid will eat away at the can and bacteria will get in. The human stomach will kill all kinds of nasties but this guy is nuts.

127
posted on 08/18/2012 12:12:40 PM PDT
by driftdiver
(I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)

I grow most of my own greens, so it's not an issue for me, but if I use store bought, I use a 50ppm chlorine soak on anything eaten raw. I don't have a spleen anymore (misplaced it on a mountain a while back), and shigella is BAD NEWS(tm) with a compromised immune system.

It's commonly spread by 3rd world workers in the field without sanitation facilites. Fecal splashing, I believe, is the technical term.

I’ve been thinking of writing up a rather long vanity about prepping; I used to have a blog (it probably still exists somewhere, I should check) but just have not the time to add to it. A few people here (I think probably all on your list) wanted me to tell them when my blog was fixed up. I’ll ping you if I do this, I really want to (time is a problem) to just give my own ideas and experiences, some of which may help a few others.

Having been in the prepping mode pretty seriously for about 7 years (?) or so, I’ve learned a lot, and we are increasingly poorer and poorer to the point where we don’t have enough for property tax even if we don’t spend one more penny until November (when taxes are due). So I have a lot of experience at prepping and having no money.

I agree with the absolute necessity of rotating; but would add this - rather than buying what one normally eats and rotating, learn to eat very cheap long shelf life foods and then rotate. That way if income dwindles (or shuts off!) a person will not go into shock at having to eat “icky” food they’re not used to, or not have enough stocked up for hard times.

131
posted on 08/18/2012 12:31:23 PM PDT
by little jeremiah
(Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)

You must have a really top notch pressure cooker. When I cook pintos, for example, I soak them overnight or until they are all swollen and non-wrinkly, rinse well, and then bring to pressure (mine is not fancy, doesn’t have any gauges), then put on low for about 40 minutes. Any less time and then are not done.

Different beans take less time; pintos seem to take the longest. Soaking is essential. I use a lot of quicker cooking legumes like split peas, lentils and mung beans. I soak them all, esp. the mung (24 hours).

136
posted on 08/18/2012 12:43:48 PM PDT
by little jeremiah
(Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)

I’m just rotating-out some Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, Vegetable, Chicken Rice, Split Pea and Tomato Soups which have *2006* stamped on them - I’ve been *prepping* since 9-11 - and they’re just fine. Same with Saltines and Ritz Crackers. As long as the can isn’t dented, kept dry and cool, it’ll (probably) last longer than the mfgr’s dreaded expiration date. (Contents may settle in shipment and your mileage may vary.)

If you look into it you will see that the soaking isn’t necessary, in fact that is how I cooked a batch of beans so quick that I didn’t get to add the salt until they were almost done.

I put them my pressure cooker, fired it up, and after it came to a boil and high pressure, I turned it off to let them (quick) soak for a few minutes, when I remembered them later, they were either cooked, or almost cooked.

Pre-soaking can save time, but isn’t needed.

People should also remember using their coffee thermos for cooking foods like wheat berries, it works on many things.

You didn’t mention salt so I guess that like me, you salt your beans before cooking, there is a myth that one shouldn’t salt before they are soft.

Costco has 50 pound bags of rice or bread flour for $17. Hat alone will keep an adult male going for a month. (Yes, nutrition is lacking but it will get you the calories needed to get nutrition.)

I think of that as Stalingrad level food store, where they were peeling the wall paper off to eat the flour paste glue.

Having plenty of rice and beans and flour gives you food, and I would rather be having to scrounge for plants and insects and rabbits, to keep me alive, than to have the weeds and grass and occasional rabbits, but no bulk foods.

You're right, in that they're a little more 'firm', but not unpleasant at all, so that I really noticed. More starchy, perhaps?

I use crumbled Saltines in my soups for a little added 'crunch texture', so the noodles aren't a focal point. Next can of CNS I open, I'll try wo/ Saltines, and see specifically how the pasta has held-up over time.

The rice and veg soups are just as tender, as when new, it seems to me. I have some various 5-yr old dumpling soups that I'm going to sample, now that you've mentioned this. If they're getting 'starchy', I'll rotate them out and get more consommé and broth varieties for replacements.

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